Time is ticking on the Best Dive Dream Job

By admin on February 20, 2012 in Diving in Bali

As I roll into my final week here in Bali I can’t help but think how lucky I was to be given this opportunity. Just 7 months ago I was packing up my life back in Vancouver, saying my final farewells to family and friends not having a clue how drastically my life would change after the best dive job experience. After all that is what the 7 months in Bali was about, the experience. From the start of course my focus was to concentrate on my training and excel in every aspect as a diver and ultimately become a PADI Instructor, but Tom and Jon also conveyed the importance of really just soaking up every minute and to see and experience everything that Bali had to offer. They set up things like river rafting and elephant park safari for both myself and second place prize winner Priscilla Ong and of course many other things were left to discover and adventure for myself along with the many interns at BSB. With our 1 day off a week, we always set up a new location to check out which always ended in a rewarding and fun filled experience. From Kuta, to Nusa Dua, Jimbaran, Uluwatu and Ubud, there was always some new places to see and somewhere else to look forward to. Now, with only a week left, I feel that though I could easily spend another 7 months here on the island of the gods, but I have definitely seen much of the incredible island, the people and the unique culture that Bali has to offer.

The first couple months were great. I was a baby in the diving world and started at BSB with my advanced course, Emergency First Response and rescue. It just so happened that 2 other people were just starting the Divemaster program, so right off the bat we were all doing our courses together and developed a great friendship. Like I mentioned in one of my earliest blogs, BSB had sort of a backpackers type atmosphere where different people from around the world would pop up here and there for various lengths of time and would immediately join the family of interns and the BSB family bringing another element to the group. The Divemaster course was one of my favorites as there were several other interns on the program and we went out everyday as a group and doing several different workshops, went on trips with guests and were led by insrtuctor Mandy who was incredible making the experience as fun as it could be. I arrived right in the peak of high season when the Mola’s and mantas were seen everyday and around the center, there was so much going. It was a great challenge to learn fast and keep up with the pace of a busy dive center and see how everyone had to do their part to keep the place running smoothly. It’s amazing how much you excel as a diver when you’re in the water literally almost everyday of the week. It’s fair to say, my bouyancy is superb, my skill circuit is 5’s across the board and my guiding skills have improved 10 fold thanks to the many great Indonesian guides with thousands of dives of experience.

The training I’ve received from the distinguished team over Blue Season Bali has certainly molded me into a confident, knowledgeable and motivated instructor. I can’t thank everyone enough over at BSB for not only the training they have provided but the entire experience I have been given since packing my bags what seems like forever ago. Unfortunately, I’ve been battling a sinus infection for the last 2 weeks which has kept me from enjoying my final month of free diving but hopefully I can get healed up in time to at least get in some final dives. So as of right now, no real diving experiences and photos to share but hopefully the final blogs will have more of that.

For now I got to get packing and make the most of my final days in Bali which I wish could be spent diving but I’ll make the most out of a frustrating situation and enjoy the sights, people and food… Sit back relax and follow along as the Best Dive Job 2012 contestants go through the same nervous days I went through one year ago. Best of luck to all of you, I’m sure the winner will be most deserving!